My Year of No New Books, Films, TV, Music and Podcasts

In 2019 I decided to try to go without new 'content' for a whole year (with a few exceptions*). Here's my 'diary'.

(Scroll to the end for clarifications and explanations*).

31/10/18

Staying in Snowdonia. Finished Jonathan Strange Vol. 1 leaving me with nothing to read for 2 days. Decided to just read it again. Got me thinking, constant overload of new content robs you of savouring what is truly great/enjoyable. Also thought about revisiting old biographies and DVDs.

15/11/18

KonMari-ing* my CDs. Some thoughts.

It's OK to love one thing by an artist and not all. I don't need to keep every Tom Waits, Arctic Monkeys, Joe Satriani CD. I often 'binge' on an artist I 'discover' but not all albums are created equal.

It's OK to move on. I used to love Out Of The Grey (and Motley Crue and Ratt for that matter!). I'm no longer that person. There's no shame in that.

If I've had an album for a while and don't love it or even know it very well, it's probably cos it never resonated with me. Keeping it and going over it again and again probably isn't going to change that. So...

Stop TRYING to like stuff. Enjoy what you enjoy. Everything else you fish out of the river – throw it back. The universe will send it back to you one day if you need it*.

*I'm saying this as a 50 year old man. If you're 0-30 years of age you need to keep experiencing new things and training your palate.

25/11/18

I feel like have to cut off the 'new supply' – music, films, books, podcasts – to enjoy more of the classics but I'm worried that the impulse is coming from a hoarder-like instinct – to sort everything. Do I really need to go back through those albums that I didn't love to see if I love them now? Second guessing my past?

There are things I love NOW. Keep! Enjoy! Feast without apology or guilt. Use with thankfulness.

07/12/18

Spent ages choosing my next book to read, finally decided on (rereading) Gilead by Mailynne Robinson but finding it hard to be stick with my choice. Shouldn't I watch Cabin In The Woods? NO, rewatch The Big Sleep. Or listen, really listen to Saltbreakers. Maybe sort CDs or listen to Nighthawks At The Diner.

I don't have time to even listen/read/watch the stuff I already have and love and want to keep. Oh the riches! To have SO MUCH to enjoy - even now, that I do not have enough hours in the day to luxuriate in it all. Ah, but the the art of picking ONE thing to enjoy rather than be paralysed by the multitude.

Maybe 2019 should be about NO new input. Just for the hell of it.

No new podcasts? No new books? No new music? No new films? Wow!

08/12/18

...so obviously I won't be able to go a whole year without any new 'content'. Possible exceptions -

• Films/TV I watch with the family – I don't want to be 'the guy on a diet at the works meal' – “sorry kids, Daddy can't take you to the movies this year”.

• New books/DVD I've already got but haven't read/watched yet.

• Gifts I get for Birthday, Father's Day, Christmas. This actually ensures a fairly regular batch of new things anyway...

• New episodes of shows I'm already watching. (Game of Thrones, The Good Place)

• My monthly free film on Rakuten TV (but then why not 'free' films on Amazon and Netflix?)

20/12/19

Marie Kondo TV show drops on Jan 1^st. Feel a perverse thrill that I will torpedo my goal of a year of no new content on the first day watching the person that inspired the goal in the first place.

Also, will I get bored, especially by running out of fiction? If I do – read something else, watch something else, listen to music.

28/12/18

Noticed I'm scouring the charity shops again for books. The old scarcity panic/programming kicking in as I approach my 'year long fast'. Oh no! I will RUN OUT OF THINGS TO READ!!! Then what? SO WHAT!? That's kind of the point. What will I find out about myself and beloved books if I do? Feel on the verge of a discovery.

Things to try:

Read a book, then reread immediately.

Read a chapter of one non-fiction book every week (or every day).

31/12/18

Rules of the 'Fast'

No new books, films, TV shows or podcasts in 2019. Only reread, watch, listen to what I already have.

Exceptions:

1. Films/TV I watch with the children or wife.
2. Films/books I watch/read with book club.
3. Unread/watched books/films I already own.
4. Books/films I receive as gifts.
5. New episodes of shows I've already started.
6. My monthly free film on Rakuten TV.
7. Songs I have to learn for work.

Deleting my 'watchlist' and 'book wishlists' on Amazon and Netflix. Wandering around town feeling the urge to browse shops and realising 'what's the point? I can't buy anything.' Hopefully that hurts in a good way and:

1. Brings joy
2. Frees up time
3. Frees up mental space

Listening to bits of Fred Astaire and Le Mystere Vol 3 and 4 felt transcendent.

On my shelf I have

Fiction books (large) - 5

Non-fiction books – 13

Podcast episodes – 10

Films/TV - 11

I need to allow myself to get bored and let the boredom reveal what's underneath. What my issues or problems are that I'm medicating myself with endless 'content'.

NB. This is not a fast. It's a FEAST.

01/01/19

Reasons I've been a hoarder. (Warning: there's a lot of 'fear' in there).

Fear of missing out (FOMO) – there might be something great out there I'm haven't heard, watched or read. Keeps me reading reviews, trawling charity shops and surfing Amazon, Netflix and Prime.

Fear of scarcity (FOS) – I might run out of new things to watch or read and then I'll be BORED! A relative of the cliché lady looking into her overflowing wardrobe sighing “I haven't got a THING to wear!”

Fear of waste (FOW) now I've got it, it would be a shame to throw it away, even if it's useless. Happens when I have something I don't like but feel I must find someone who will love it before I let it go.

Bought The T-Shirt syndrome (BTTSS) – expressing my love for a thing by buying everything else associated with the thing, rather than enjoying the thing itself.

Being a completist. KM-ing my books make me realise that though I love Cormac McCarthy, I don't love The Stonemason, never have and will never read it again. So why did I keep it? Because I have all his books. But that's crazy. Not as crazy as having kept the third Matrix DVD (which I loathe) for the same reason – I'm a completist.

08/01/19

Feel more relaxed on my commute - think it's due to not wading through a massive list of podcasts. Spent the entire journey reading Anna Karenina. Finished Vol. 1 but decided to quit there. Never got into it, no gripping characters, no action. War and Peace had action to balance the romance, plus spiritual crises, philosophy and bits of sparkling prose. AK just has farming.

I would have quit earlier but for FOS – it's one of my few new books left and I have to make them last the year! And I cut the hefty paperback up and rebound it as two volumes so I felt obliged to keep it (FOW). Result – I was trying to enjoy it.

Stop trying to love stuff. Love what you love.

12/01/19

Dropped clothes off at charity shop and saw Free Fire DVD for £1. Very tempted, but managed to let it go. I'm 'allowed' to buy it – I've already seen it so it doesn't 'count'. But it's still streaming. I don't 'need' it. It may be years till I want to watch it again. So why buy a copy? FOS. What if I want to watch it when it's no longer streaming? Get thee behind me FOS!

18/01/19

Last night I was really listening to/savouring Laura Veirs: Saltbreakers and today I'm really enjoying Just Kids (Patti Smith). She writes in a way that you feel the love/joy that she feels in art books. Like McCarthy does with horses in All The Pretty Horses.

19/01/19

Down to my last 1½ Podcast episodes.

22/01/19

Train cancelled and missed two buses, but I ended up decompressing nicely – over the course of the day I reread Holes from cover to cover.

25/01/19

I'm feeling a bit more mental space as I'm savouring old music – Saltbreakers, Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge.

New stuff (Quincy Jones autobiography, Just Kids) seems more special – not a just chore or backlog to be worked through.

I listened to my very last podcast (Edgar Wright interviewing Jackie Chan).

My paralysis of choice/overwhelm had previously gotten so bad I'd downloaded a random letter/number generator apps to help me pick what to read/watch next. Now books/music are becoming special again.

Obviously I'm not wasting as much time trawling the 'net or charity shops hunting for the next thing to buy/watch – though I am still succumbing occasionally.

01/02/19

Read a post by Garry Robbins – he's quit soc med for 3 months and experienced 'boredom' as a good thing! I've felt some of that mental freedom – the gaps in between the next book or the next album or film rather than the gap being stressful cos it's full of 'the paralysis of choice' picking the next thing. A breathing space.

07/02/19

Rewatched an episode of Firefly during lunch today. Initially consigned it to the 'ageing badly' pile, but enjoying it by the end. Shiny.

13/02/19

Finished Quincy Jones autobiography. Now rereading biography of Nate Saint.

15/02/19

Experiencing the longer term hunger for something I really want to watch is sifting the wheat from the chaff. Instant gratification means I end up consuming things on a whim – snacking as opposed to planning a meal, preparing it and then enjoying it.

James Baldwin. Currently wanting to read something of his or watch the I Am Not Your Negro documentary. So I'm sitting with it. Will the urge go away or increase? The desire to read the second Marie Kondo book has faded but deferring Baldwin has made me want to reread Maya Angelou.

20/02/19

Though it's not part of my 'fast' I've even cleared my Youtube watch list. Bailed on stagecraft performance seminar by opinionated blowhard, Paul McCartney carpool karaoke (bland emotional clickbait) making of Songs In The Key Of Life (seen it before – BTTSS: why watch 'bonus features' when you can enjoy the album instead?).

21/04/19

Whatever else it's achieving this 'fast' is meaning I spend a lot less time browsing on Amazon and trawling charity shops. So there's that.

25/02/19

Started reading the wife's copy of The Redbreast (my first Harry Hole book) on the bus. Felt I needed to have a 'treat' stored up as I'm working long hours. Surprised to see I'd read over 100 pages by the evening. Now each new book/film is an 'event'.

26/02/19

Couldn't work up enthusiasm for listening to Southeastern (Jason Isbell) yesterday – felt I was 'trying' to like it. So I listened to the last track 'Relatively Easy', connected with the message and listening to it a second time. Then listened to the penultimate track 'Yvette' twice and back to the last track once. Today I went back another track but felt I'd got everything 'Super 8' had to give in one listen, so went back another track 'New South Wales'. Still kind of savouring though I doubt this album will become the long term favourite that The Nashville Sound is.

02/03/19

New film. Watched Rumble In The Bronx with the kids.

08/03/19

Rereading All The Pretty Horses. (third time in six years) Love it.

12/03/19

After work took Zeppo to see Captain Marvel again as a 'well done on you school report' reward.

15/03/19

Family Film Night. Rewatched Penguins Of Madagascar. Hilarious and quotable.

22/03/19

After being read to as a child and reading it to Groucho when she was about 10 years old, I'm finally reading Lord Of The Rings for my own enjoyment. And I am.

25/03/19

Very busy day today but reading LotR outside in the sunshine was a blessed respite.

27/03/19

Not in a hurry today so stopped in at a charity shop. Saw two Robicheaux novels I haven't read. Tempted. Maybe would have been more so if they'd been next in the series but I'm not desperate to read them YET (or ever...?) and I haven't run out of books yet. And there's always the library when I do...

I wonder if I will even run out of books by the new year...

Was planning to watch The Dirt (Motley Crue) 'with' Mark but when our schedules didn't sync up and he showed no enthusiasm I was thinking of watching it on my own. But then I thought 'why?' I don't even WANT to watch it.

29/04/19

I'm still not really enjoying my previously watched/read stuff because I'm focused on the few new items I still have left. Maybe I should try to burn through all of those quickly?

30/03/19

Bought a book! The out of print Meditations From The Breakdown Lane about trans-America running goes for £80 on eBay was on Amazon for £8.

Feel tempted by John Wick 2 and Disobedience that are free on Amazon Prime.

04/04/19

Rewatched Telstar with kids – Good Lord, it gets dark after the hilarious opening 20 minutes! It joins Matrix Reloaded in the charity shop pile. Like Wagner the latter has some wonderful moments and some terrible quarter of an hours.

06/04/19

Back To The Future for Family Film Night.

07/04/19

Introduced the kids to Duncan Jones' Moon.

10/04/19

Johnny English Strikes Again (again). The kids love it.

LotR book 4 is a bit of a slog – just like that portion of the films.

11/04/19

Listening to Tom Waits' Rain Dogs while running in the sunshine. Freedom!

12/04/19

Rewatched The Pelican Brief for Family Film Night. Kids enjoyed it. First saw it at the Mansfield Odeon on a date followed bolognese pizza.

16/04/19

Realised most recommendations are half-hearted “you ought to watch/read this” but when pressed it's rarely that that the person LOVES it or thinks YOU'LL love it. It seems like we're so keen to find things to fill each others lives up with.

I've started a 'Captain America List' (see Winter Soldier) where I add things to watch/read after this fast ends. But I'm only adding things people REALLY recommend.

16/04/19

New films. Watched First Man with the kids and The Children's Act with the Mrs. Both merely OK.

1/5/19

Dug out a cassette of The Goon Show episodes to listen to while I washed the pots. Haven't listened to those in decades (Goons or cassettes).

4/5/19

There's an old jazz record shop in Nottingham. They also sell used DVDs – but they're not labelled 'used' or 'second-hand', they're 'previously enjoyed'.

Started David Copperfield. This is the last unread fiction book I possess. After this it really is all 'previously enjoyed.'

5/5/19

Finished Beastie Boys Book. Down to my last seven non-fiction.

12/5/19

Introduced my two youngest to Hot Fuzz a few weeks ago and tonight we all watched it again to their (and my) great delight.

14/5/19

Found an abandoned copy of Edgar Allen Poe at work and contemplated taking it home. Not sure I want to read it, but it's the fear of scarcity (FOS) kicking in again. It'll still be there in a couple of months if I get desperate.

16/5/19

Forced myself to sit down and watch my copy of The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner that I've had knocking about for ages. I think Marie Kondo's right when she talks about missing your chance to read a book “you may have wanted to read it when you bought it, but if you haven't read it by now, the book's purpose was to teach you that you didn't need it” (p.106-7). When I picked up the DVD (on sale) last year I was on an Alan Sillitoe kick - wanted to read the book as well and watch Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. The enthusiasm wore off months ago leaving me with a DVD I no longer wanted to watch. But today I did and, unsurprisingly, I didn't enjoy it at all. Onto the charity shop pile.

24/05/19

Saw an Incredibles T-shirt today. I wanted to buy it, because I love that film so much. Got me thinking about the irrational excitement I feel when I see a cheap copy of a film or book I love, which I already own. I feel like I buying it again will somehow increase my enjoyment of the thing INSTEAD OF GOING HOME AND MAKING THE TIME TO WATCH THE FILM ITSELF AGAIN! It's the same impulse that drives me to buy different editions of favourites (eg an album of instrumental mixes of Jellyfish albums) and watch endless bonus features and 'making of' featurettes and of course become a completist.

When you love something you're tempted to buy everything by that author, artist, director. This can be great but not everything will be worth keeping and it's OK to stop if you start to get diminishing returns and it's definitely OK to only keep the ones you love. I'm finding this with Dickens. I've enjoyed everything I've read but I've only LOVED Great Expectations and A Tale Of Two Cities. So after a bit of research maybe I only love later-Dickens. After eight books I definitely no longer need to read EVERYTHING he wrote.

27/05/19

My only unwatched DVDs are 3 volumes of Laurel and Hardy. I love L&H so why haven't I watched them? Because every DVD is a mix of the good and the classic, alongside the 'OK' to very poor silents (and even some where L&H are bit part players in someone else's film) and 'past their best' long features. It's a completists wet dream. And indeed I have these 3 DVDs because they complete the 21 CD box set I've been collecting for several years. So FOMO is telling me to watch them all just to check there aren't some hidden classics there but I'm struggling to work up the enthusiasm. And don't get me even started on getting rid of unloved DVDs to make my complete set incomplete again! What a dilemma. The best I can come up with at the moment is to put a tick or a cross next to the titles to 'sort' them.

10/06/19

Big Lebowski. Never gets old.

15/06/19

Finally moved my cassette deck and record deck within easy reach. Since then I've dug out cassettes and vinyl David Lindley (Win This Album), Debussy, Shostakovitch, Charlie Parker. WONDERFUL. Having things in different formats just makes the artefacts themselves feel special and distinctive. I know that's romantic nonsense.

16/06/19

Father's Day. Got four new books and a DVD, A Perfect Day (Del Toro film), and watched it immediately with the kids. Must have watched it 5 or 6 times already. Started reading one them (Black Cherry Blues) too.

25/06/19

Today I picked up The Code of the Woosters from the library. I have read it before (twice) - even owned it – but I KonMari-ed the giant omnibus edition it was in as holding it did NOT spark joy in my wrists. The novel itself is a hoot.

26/06/19

Groucho (and the whole internet) have been telling me to watch Chernobyl. Today I noticed it only has 11 days left on NOWTV. My chimp brain says MUST BINGE NOW! FOMO alert!

I COULD ask my wife (or kids) if they want to watch it and exploit that loophole but I'll trust the universe to 'bring it back to me' if I NEED to watch it. Having made the decision I felt a lot better. At some point I'll look through the recommended box sets on my Captain America List and ask the family if they genuinely want to watch any. If not, those shows can wait.

At the moment me and the Mrs are thoroughly enjoying revisiting My Name Is Earl season 2.

29/06/19

Shared my theory about everyone recommending filler rather than 'must see' with my friend Andy. After some reflection he said “You know what is must see? Chernobyl”. Don't give in to FOMO! It'll be out on DVD or streaming next January.

01/07/19

Sherlock Holmes was my favourite character when I was 8-10 years old. Various film and TV adaptations have taken the shine of him a little. So I took a trip back via my son's copy of The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes to get reacquainted. I enjoyed it, for it's failures as much as it's successes. But I've no desire to go through the whole collection.

Next up. The Great Gatsby. I HATED it when I read it in my early twenties, it was full of spoilt rich people doing nasty things. Now I suspect that was kind of the point. Picked it up from the library.

Really enjoying my David Lindley cassette. Googling it/him read the consensus that his debut is even better. Saw a bootleg cassette! of it on eBay for £1. (Why am I surfing eBay?!?!?) Tempting. Very tempting. The OBJECT is part of the experience. But I listened to my own cassette a few more times. Do I need another? I don't.

02/07/19

Took the kids to see Spiderman: Far From Home. Just OK.

09/07/19

Digging out a John Scofield bootleg from my iTunes I found a single song that I have no idea of where I got it from – it's an absolute banger called Hottentot – I can't believe I haven't heard it or played it to death. I will now.

11/07/19

Rereading The Stand (Stephen King) 300 pages in, 1100 to go. It's good, but I'm not loving it and it's not going to be a keeper.

I'm very low on fiction. I have music and films to suit all moods, but 90% of my fiction is heavy, dark, long or all three. More than that most of it is stuff I've read or reread in the last 10 years. I started reading fiction again when I turned 40. In the 20 years previously (my christian phase) I read almost exclusively non-fiction, christian books. I would estimate I read no more than 40 secular or fiction books in the entire 2 decades. No wonder I have such a shallow well to draw from. That's sad.

14/07/19

Saw The Martian in The Works today for £2. Wanted to reread it, but didn't like the cover, so didn't buy it. I can always go to the library.

Got me thinking about the books I regret KonMari-ing, or at least want to reread.

Out of maybe 500 books this is the complete list so far.

1. The Martian
2. The Princess Bride (but still have it on kindle)
3. e.e. Cummings poetry anthology
4. Hamlet
5. Heart of Darkness

19/07/19

Decided to reread and then immediately re-re-read A Tale of Two Cities.

21/07/19

The downside of 'exception 1' is that you genuinely end up watching things you don't want to. We're on season 2 of Big Little Lies now and I'm hating almost every minute. But my GLW* is keen to watch Chernobyl too (now on NowTV boxset) so swings and roundabouts.

24/07/19

Took my daughter Groucho to see The Dead Don't Die at Broadway. Not as much fun as promised.

27/07/19

Rewatched Koyaanisqatsi with kids, and watched Chernobyl with mrs.

01/08/19

Rewatched The Whole Nine Yards and enjoyed it. Even with one box of DVDs it's still hard to just pick something to watch.

Immediate reread of A Tale of Two Cities - I'm appreciating the writing more and picking up a few plot points and hints that I missed.

Reading Here I Stand, Bainton's Martin Luther biography a chapter per day and enjoying that too.

02/08/19

My Captain America list* of 'must see/read' things is up to two and a half small notebook pages, but many of these are single podcast episodes or songs. Page 1 breaks down as:

Books – 2

Podcast Episodes – 5

Documentaries – 4

TV shows – 2

Albums – 2

Films – 1

13/08/19

Went to see Apocalypse Now: The Final Cut at IMAX mainly because it would make me sit down for the 3+ hours needed to watch it uninterrupted. I really enjoyed it when I watched it (in 2 sittings) a few years ago but, though I acknowledge it's greatness, I didn't love it, so when I got in I put the DVD in the charity shop pile. 

15/08/19

Finished Two Cities (again). The second reading really brought out the depth and beauty of the prose. Honestly, I could go for a third time. But I might experiment next with watching a film multiple times in a row.

The Luther bio got bogged down when it became more theology than biography. May try the 'chapter a day' thing again with a different book.

17/08/19

Watched The Big Lebowski again with my daughter - we both had a great time.

19/08/19

Finished 73 hours of Mark Lewisohn's Tune In audiobook. What am I going to listen to while I work out? Three Men In A Boat. Which I've previously read and listened too. Finished the Emil Zatopek bio I got for Father's Day. Down to my last unread non-fiction book.

20/08/19

Mindhunter Season 2. Enjoyed S1, immediately hooked back in.

22/08/19

Rereading Dracula. Enjoying it so much. This is my 3rd time. Rewatched 12 Monkeys and Soylent Green. Neither really held up. 12 Monkeys was another film we saw when a date at the cinema cost £1 each & Soylent I watched when at school. All I could remember was the delight in the dinner scene. In 2019 Brad Pitt is doing Johnny Depp levels of overacting & Charlton Heston is a mysogynistic jerk playing a mysogynistic jerk in a time when films were made by mysogynistic jerks.

25/08/19

I don't believe in 'guilty pleasures' but if I did Hyperdrive would fit the bill. It's GBBO* on wheels & me and all the kids love it.

Took my eldest to see Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. Good. Slow and oddly sweet for Tarantino.

27/08/19

The family are now watching Agents of Shield Season 6 en masse now. Even though everyone agrees the quality has been steadily going down for years. Oh Coulson, I wish I knew how to quit you!

05/10/19

I've kept a list of everything I've watched, read etc for years. When I started this 'thing' I expected I reread and rewatch a lot more old, beloved stuff. But looking at the figures so far, that might not be the case. While new stuff is WAY down, the old stuff is just UP. Not WAY UP. At least not as much as I thought it would be.

There's some explanations for that.

• I will always read and watch more new stuff because I'll try stuff and then abandon it if it's not ringing my bells - '100 pages less my age' is how long I've always given a book to grab me. If it doesn't - then I bail. Even more so with TV shows. Whereas starting a much loved TV show or book and then ditching it early would be rare. 
• Also many of the books I love are longer. 
• And I read Tale of Two Cities twice.

All that being said, this year I am reading, watching and listening to LESS. That's a surprise. But it still feels positive. I'm more intentional, less stressed and savouring things more.

10/10/19

Rereading No Compromise (Keith Green biography) and relistening to No Compromise (Keith Green album - on cassette!). Both were very important to me once upon a time but I've held onto them for sentimental value and though they were enjoyable to revisit I'm not that person anymore. Charity shop.

14/10/19

Robert Forster died recently. Rewatched Jackie Brown in his memory. It is a hugely enjoyable film and he's great in it.

17/10/19

My daughter left her Millennium trilogy (Dragon Tattoo) here with her recommendation and I've just finished the last one. Well-written page turners.

23/10/19

Finally watched one of my Laurel and Hardy DVDs and finished Lennon and McCartney: Together Alone. My unread/unwatched list now consists of ONE Laurel and Hardy DVD and a pdf of a dissertation on Bulgarian Choir Music.

Rewatching season 2 of The Good Place and The Thick of It. Both great.

31/10/19

Had a Halloween/Sigourney Weaver double bill for FFN*. Alien followed by Ghostbusters. Both great films, but if I'm honest I have no desire to watch Alien again in the foreseeable future. Thank you and let you go. Ghostbusters on the other hand I could watch every week...

Rereading War and Peace. I'm a little sad that this will probably be my last book of the year (as it runs to 1400 pages) but there you go.

7/11/19

Found a copy of 2112 by Rush on the mac and rewatched Enter The Dragon. I can appreciate the artistry of both but in the cold light of 2019 they are total cheesefests. I wish Bruce Lee had made a film that adequately showcased his talents but he never did and trying to like them more is not going to change that now. Charity shop.

12/11/19

Enjoying digging out various albums from my hard drive. The Temptations - At Their Best, Tom Waits - Alice, Trio Bulgarka - The Forest Is Crying, Pedro The Lion - Control...

14/11/19

True Dat.

Went on a cinema date with my GLW - The Good Liar. Was good, bit slow, guessed the 'twist' from watching the trailer...

08/12/19

Been really ill for a week. On book 2 of War and Peace but it's a hard to pick up. Rewatched a bunch of stuff

Assault on Precinct 13
All The President's Men
Bad Words
Children of Men 
Die Hard
The Martian

also got an unexpected final freebie from Rakuten which I spent on Band Aid (indie comedy, not the charity concert).

10/12/19

Been pulling old rock stuff out of my iTunes. Kind of disturbed at how casual and commonplace male violence against women is - it's almost it's own sub genre.

Now you might think I'm messing
Or he don't exist
But honey I'm confessing
I'm a mad sexual rapist

There's a killer on the loose again
A killer on the loose
There's a killer on the loose again
A lady killer on the loose

Thin Lizzy: Killer on the Loose

As you lie there naked like a body in a tomb
Suspended animation as I slip into your room

I'm your night prowler, break down your door
I'm your night prowler, crawling across your floor
I'm the night prowler, make a mess of you, yes I will

AC/DC: Night Prowler

15/12/19

Watched Knives Out (great) and 6 Underground (terrible) with the kids. Rewatched Fight Club, Heat and Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai. First two are still classics. Heat is almost Tolstoyian in it's multitude of characters and side plots. Ghost Dog manages to be cool and annoying at the same time. I'll donate that one to the charity shop.

18/12/19

Christmas shopping means I'm inadvertently picking up books/DVDs for myself that I see on sale. I don't want to slip back into this. Buying stuff that I don't REALLY want, just cos it's cheap. Bargains are good, but if I wouldn't pay full price for it then it's not something I really NEED in my life.

2020

Found the following in an old diary. It's a reminder of the overwhelm I used to live in (in this case as a book hoarding would-be preacher).

 

 

 

72 books on my 'to read' list when I started! So many that I had to divide them into subgroups! Oy Ve!

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THE RULES: 

No new books, films, TV shows or podcasts in 2019. Only reread, rewatch and relisten.

THE EXCEPTIONS: 

1. Films/TV I watch with the children or wife.
2. Films/books I watch/read with book club.
3. Unread/watched books/films I already own.
4. Books/films I receive as gifts. 
5. New episodes of shows I've already started.
6. My monthly free film on Rakuten TV.
7. Songs I have to learn for work.

DEFINITIONS:

KonMari-ing/KMing - reducing clutter and possessions by the 'Kon Mari' method as popularised in The Life Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo.

soc med - social media
FFN - Family Film Night

FOMO - Fear of missing out

FOS - Fear of scarcity

FOW - Fear of waste

BTTSS - Bought The T-Shirt syndrome - loving something so much you have to watch all the bonus features, making of documentaries, collect merch, alternative versions instead of just enjoying the thing itself.
GTW - Good Lady Wife.
GBBO - Great British Bake-Off

Captain America List - a list of things you should check out that you might have missed (while you've been frozen in the ice for 70 years) from Captain America: The Winter Soldier.